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emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt
emotional
funny
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide
Minor: Antisemitism
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I spent so much of my time reading going back and forth between hysterical laughter and groaning, "Noooooo why would you say that!" This book is so quotable and such an accurate depiction of the millenial experience and today's zeitgeist. But it was also hard to read how cruelly everyone spoke to each other. Especially the mom to her daughters (insisting they need filler to look pretty, using Poppy's mental illness as a reason to make herself the victim, pitting the sisters against each other), and how Jules cut down Poppy at every turn, despite knowing she'd recently overcome a suicide attempt.
Overall I really enjoyed the experience of their judgey banter, but recommending it to others would require quite a few caveats. It's cringey, irreverent, includes a lot of moments of being embarrassed for the characters, and so many of the vignettes of other people were downright disgusting. I wanted to root for Jules but she was also so self-destructive and mean. You might want to keep all that in mind going in. But it is also sharply witty and realistic and unusual, and the dialogue is so snappy and satisfying. Some of Poppy's rants were iconic and I've reread them multiple times while cackling.
The ending was abrupt, yes. But given how stuck the two sisters felt the whole book and how nothing had really happened to make them feel unstuck, it makes sense that there wouldn't be some magical solution to wrap things up at the end. It captures how it feels to be young enough to feel aimless, and old enough to be jaded and feel like you've accomplished nothing and aren't as unique as you maybe thought. Those are awful feelings but they're very relatable, especially for overthinkers.
Overall I really enjoyed the experience of their judgey banter, but recommending it to others would require quite a few caveats. It's cringey, irreverent, includes a lot of moments of being embarrassed for the characters, and so many of the vignettes of other people were downright disgusting. I wanted to root for Jules but she was also so self-destructive and mean. You might want to keep all that in mind going in. But it is also sharply witty and realistic and unusual, and the dialogue is so snappy and satisfying. Some of Poppy's rants were iconic and I've reread them multiple times while cackling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Suicide, Transphobia, Vomit, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria
Minor: Sexual content
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Antisemitism
funny
reflective
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, Classism
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is very hard for me to rate at this in this moment of having just finished it. I think it did what it set out to do very well. If you’re trying to read something to “escape” the real world, you will not like this. Everything annoying and the worst about our real world and all of the types of people in it is magnified in a satire-y way. Everyone is flawed and unbearable. I was really worried about the ending, since I saw so many people say it was needless animal abuse (which it wasn’t abuse, it was a dog fight, which wasn’t abuse. There is a mention of animal abuse in the middle of the book, but it only references it, nothing is shown but I see why it was done. At least, I have my own understanding of why. There is no character growth in this, you see why these people are the way they are, the toxic cycles that they’re, to an extent, quite hyper aware of, and in other ways completely oblivious and/or just unable to break their way out of. My thoughts on the ending bit are that it highlights how nothing has changed for our MC. They’ve been through this year where they could’ve grown, could’ve become less toxic with their sister, could’ve broken this toxic cycle of being so much like her mom, or taking the easy way out, but she doesn’t. And in this moment, when her sister really needs her, what does she do? Nothing. Instead she opens her phone and scrolls through the ocean of conservative mommy blogger captions that she uses to numb out or feel better about herself, whatever reason she does it. Rather than doing anything in her real life. .
Overall I really enjoyed this, as much as you can enjoy something so miserable hahah. The writing way great, the narrator was amazing too, she kept me very engaged. I read along on my kindle while listening, and the way the narrator of the audiobook said certain things totally was different than how I would’ve read it, so it added a lot of tonal subtext. This is a character study type of book, no plot. Just a peak into the lives of these toxic people and the cycles of toxicity. I am just a bit tired of the late 20s something, white woman living in NYC who somehow always can afford their rent going on about how miserable they are type of book. That’s my bad for picking them up so often, I just like unlikeable MCs
Overall I really enjoyed this, as much as you can enjoy something so miserable hahah. The writing way great, the narrator was amazing too, she kept me very engaged. I read along on my kindle while listening, and the way the narrator of the audiobook said certain things totally was different than how I would’ve read it, so it added a lot of tonal subtext. This is a character study type of book, no plot. Just a peak into the lives of these toxic people and the cycles of toxicity. I am just a bit tired of the late 20s something, white woman living in NYC who somehow always can afford their rent going on about how miserable they are type of book. That’s my bad for picking them up so often, I just like unlikeable MCs
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting
Minor: Animal cruelty, Transphobia, Lesbophobia
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i liked it mostly even though EVERYONE in this book should be in therapy. toxic familial relationships abound. i would have rated higher if not for the ending which was deeply unsatisfying and abrupt. it doesn’t tie up any loose ends. the main characters don’t really show any growth.
the very end of the book involves gratuitous animal violence for no reason??? it kinda soured me on the book entirely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Animal cruelty
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Medical content, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Vomit
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt